Festival of Quilts 2014

Good afternoon, I think I'm back!  The horrendous side effects seem to have abated and, fingers crossed, the new tablets seem to be doing their job.  A small light has appeared in the distance and I'm hoping it's not another train...

I've been meaning to write this post for a while, so this will serve as my first post back.  A few weeks ago I went to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham.  It was my first time.  I took my mum and met Kerry there.  Due to a torrential downpour, the road was flooded so it took us so long to get there that we didn't have much time.  I did, however manage to do some shopping!

I fell in love with this bunny and with her beautiful coat.  There are other clothes patterns available.  Before you say "another bunny you're never going to get round to sewing", buying this actually encouraged me to start the one I bought in Harrogate that is my ALOYF goal for the month!  More on that soon... and hopefully a finish by the end of the month.

The finished hare quilt above was hanging in this booth so I had to buy the pattern, though I will call them bunnies.  It's fusible bias tape so I need to get started on the Mackintosh one I bought at Harrogate first!  The kit on the right is a gorgeous embroidery.  Hopefully it will be gorgeous when I've finished!

Continuing the bunny theme...

Bunny fabrics!  The Eternal Maker turned out to be a great source of bunny fabrics, and the two middle ones that look like aliens at first were from a cheap stall.  All destined for my bunny quilt - which I now have an idea for!

I loved this map fabric, but when I tried to buy it on the first stall I found it on, they said I had to buy it in 60cm increments... which lead to the top of Russia being cut off! (the continents aren't lined up, they're "tossed" onto the fabric).  I refused as I wanted Russia - I'm intending to embroider the places I've been and considering I crossed the length of Siberia, I think that's an integral part.  I bought it from another stall who said I could have whatever measurement I wanted.  The little blob things to the left fell into my basket after I tried to convince myself they were bunnies.  I drive a blue Mini with a checkerboard roof and checkerboard stripes on the side.  This fabric ALMOST has my car on it, so it had to come home with me.

I think this is worthy of Sunday Stash, so I'll be linking up with Molli.

Want to see the quilts that caught my eye?  I have no details of who made them (with one exception), so if anyone wants me to credit their quilt, leave me a comment and I will gladly do so.  Quilters featured here - your quilts are amazing (as were a lot of the others but we only saw about half the exhibition).

   

  

 

  

This one is by Kerry!

  

  

  

  

 

A small announcement

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.  I was supposed to post today (I try to post every other day) but I have run out of things to post. There are a couple of things that I've been working on, including some book reviews, but I don't have photos yet.  Apart from that, I've done very little.  If I'm honest, I've been going through absolute hell after the doctor messed around with my tablets.  Imagine that you've just been spun around and around and are feeling all dizzy and not sure which way is up.  That's how I've been feeling for well over a week now - permanently.  Sitting down and even lying down do not bring any respite and I just don't feel like doing anything, so I haven't.

That was my long-winded way of saying that I'm taking a little bloggy break.  I hope to be back in a couple of weeks, but I'm just going to have to wait and see.  I'll still be visiting you all and replying to emails.  I probably didn't even need to write this post, especially not in summer when blogland feels so empty, but it was on the off-chance that someone noticed I'd disappeared.

Happy August to you all!

pellet beads

Good morning readers.  Today I've got a class at the Bead Shop Nottingham, and I realised I haven't shown pictures of what I made at my last class.

It was a class using pellet beads which are a new shaped bead from Preciosa.  We used them with twin beads.

My photos are pretty shocking I'm afraid, even with the lightbox.  This piece is so much more vibrant and pretty than this photo suggest!  We started by making the stars with a selection of twin beads, seed beads and pellet beads.  The plan was to make a pair of earrings, then a pendent.  Of course, I didn't want to make earrings so I made the necklace above with a lovely copper coloured pellet bead.

I then used blue beads to have a go at the bracelet that Steph had started as a class sample.  I was quite pleased that I actually got both pieces done in the class.  The only thing I haven't done is add a clasp to the bracelet, and writing this post now, I seem to remember that I still haven't done that!

I like working with the new shaped beads that seem to be popping up all over the place.  I bought some pips too, but haven't had a chance to play with them yet as the last week has been full of work and horrendous side effects from new medications, including an allergic reaction to one tablet that left me with what looks like a burn on my face.   

I also want to play with some O beads, but I haven't bought any yet until I use some of my existing stash!  Triangle seed beads are also on my list.  

What's no longer on my list is white chocolate as my lovely friend Margaret sent me the biggest bar of chocolate you have ever seen in your life!

Check out that big boy!  And no, it's no longer intact... She actually sent me this pretty little needle-book pattern that I'd admired on her blog and added the chocolate as a little extra.  Thank you Margaret, so very generous of you and very much appreciated.  Little gestures (or enormous gestures in this case!) like this are what makes the blogging community so special, arguments over Italian men notwithstanding.

Save the Stitches update - blocks 4, 5 and 6

I've been working steadily on this project over the past few weeks, I am really enjoying stitching it and it's pretty much all that I feel like working on at the minute.  In case you're new to my blog, or have forgotten, this is Elizabeth Almond of Blackwork Journey's Save The Stitches blackwork sampler.

This is block 5, I really like the lower left pattern.

And here we have block 6.  There were some confusing patterns there!  Because the patterns change gradually throughout the sub-block, it's hard to memorise them so I have to stitch with the pattern in front of me.  This is not a criticism,  I have NO criticisms of this pattern, I totally love it and find it hard to put down.

As you can see, I also started the outline for block 7.  At this point, I changed from Q snap to stretcher bars, thinking it would be easier than constantly moving the Qsnap.  I couldn't keep the tension though so I've swapped back.  I found that I have to put beaded areas under the bars sometimes and the beads have pulled out, so I won't be doing any more beading until the end when I'll have to go back and fix it.

As I had it off the frame, I took a snap of the whole thing so far.  I think Elizabeth released 14 and 15 this week... I'm catching up though!

Related Posts

Block 3Block 2
block 1 finished
Block 1
The tiny version

A project for July

I was a member of the Bag of the Month Club, we were sent a new bag pattern every month.  I have intentions to make some of the other bags, but as soon as I saw June's bag, I knew it was to be my new handbag.  

It's called the City Slicker and is by ChrisW Designs.  If you click on that link, you'll see her bag and a link to buy the pattern.  June's EMMQG meeting saw me cutting out all the pieces.  It took the entire session, there were a lot of pieces.  Last time I showed you this project, I'd got as far as basting the Bump (which I used instead of Soft and Stable as I can't afford to remortgage my house right now) to the outer pieces.

Finishing this bag was my entry for July's A Lovely Year of Finishes.  It didn't happen.  I also wanted it done by the 15th July so I could enter it in the Bag Of the Month Club competition.  It didn't happen.  I did, however, finish it on Thursday.  Ta dah!

Oh, there seems to be a problem here!  I am such an idiot, really, a massive twat.  I'd also sewn a rectangle with a cross inside on each strap end, then gone over it 3 times... lots of unpicking.  

So here are 35 million pictures of the finished bag.  Above shows the front which features a twist lock.  This was my first time putting in a twist lock and it wasn't that hard.  The biggest problem was that I couldn't find my Fray Stoppa, but I just used a bit of fabric glue.

The fabric is Kate Spain's Daydream.  I'd bought a metre of each with the intention of making a bag, but before I found this pattern.  I adore this fabric.

The front pocket has fusible interfacing and fleece on it and it did this - see that above?  Ah well, the pocket is usually closed anyway.

This is the back, that's a welt pocket, my first one!  Oh, I get to link this up to Something New for 2014!

See?  There's a pocket in there.

It has LOTS of inside pockets.  These were all in the pattern which is great, if they hadn't have been, I would have added them.  There's a double slip pocket on one side, featuring a pleated pocket for bulkier items.  There are also a couple of pen slots in the back pocket (you see the strip of fake piping?  That's the top of the pocket).

The other side has a zip pocket and another slip pocket.  I didn't divide it in half as suggested in the pattern, I made one side the right size for my phone.

The sides have these buckles which are just for show, and the rivets.  How much do I hate rivets?!?  They're up there with snaps for me.  They bent, they broke, they fell out... damn things.  There were supposed to be rivets on the straps to hold them together, but I didn't fancy them falling off!

Overall, this bag was hard... it was harder than the Weekender by far - there's no way I could have made this bag in a day.  So many pieces, so many fiddly processes.  I tried to follow the printable pattern but gave up and had to follow the full pattern on my tablet - at 77 pages there was no way I was printing it out, but the photos were vital as instructions such as whether something is right sides together or which way up to put something were not stated in the written instructions!

All said and done, I love this bag and it's a great alternative to my current bucket which is starting to fray and looks very worn.  I just hope this bag will be big enough for me...

Oh, and it's my first goal for Q3 of the FAL!

Linking up to:

 2014 FAL







Something New for 2014

Sunday Stash

I'm linking up to Sunday Stash today.  I went on a bit of a rabbit fabric rampage... not sure what came over me but several hours of perusing the ranges of bunny fabrics in most UK online shops lead me to this:

I'm so glad I got my hands on that Dress Up fabric... maybe I should have bought more...  The central one - the blue, comes in several different colours but I couldn't find it anywhere that had other bunny fabrics, I was trying to keep the shipping cost down.

Here is what they all are: 

The Eternal Maker

1 -	Lily Ashbury Folklore Otomi in Cloud Pumpkin (11480 11)
2 -	Kate Spain Daydreams Arcadia in Ink on White (27170 24)
3 -	Abi Hall ABC Menagerie Tossed Animals in Sunshine (39521 13)

Plush Addict
   4 - Michael Miller - Foxtrot Citron
  5 - Michael Miller - Bunny Scallop Pink
  6 - Michael Miller - Rabbit Repeat Aqua
  7 - Michael Miller - Rabbit Repeat Coral
  8 - Michael Miller - Bunny Stripe Blue
  9 - Moda - Folklore Otomi Peackock Floral Turquoise
  10 - Dear Stella - Wild Dress Me White
  11 - Michael Miller - Camp Out Yellow

August goals

July went badly, I suspect August will too... let's see what I've got lined up...

Needlequest

The challenge this month is fabric colouring techniques...  There are a couple of things I want to try out for this, so let's see if it happens!

Sew Kitschy paper piecing bom 

It's a utensil pot this month.  I'm still in need of coffee mats, trivets and storage boxes for the kitchen so I still hope to get this done!

Something Old, Something New

I'm bowing out, I've never managed to link up anyway!

Something New for 2014

If I manage to do Needlequest, that will be one!  I'm sure other new techniques will come my way too.

A Lovely Year of Finishes

I did finish July's ALYOF in July, but didn't post it in time... So this month I'm going to make the bunny softie kit.



Craft Book Sew along

I've got tons of books to review for you so I'm hoping to get at least 3 reviewed this month...

Rainbow Scrap Challenge

I can't find the announcement of the new colour, but So Scrappy's blog has gone green, which means it must be green?  I've already done green (So Scrappy divided some of the colours into lights and darks but I didn't), so I'll aim to finish red!

Smalls SAL

Expect to see another bunny!

2014 FAL Q3

See the list here.  I will get some done (oh, one already is but not posted yet!)


Related Posts

July reviewJuly goals
June review
June goals
May review
May goals
April review
April goals
March review
March goals
February review 1
February review 2
February review 3
February goals
January review